OUR VIEW: Make views known on county budget

But if you do - or if you have questions - you'll have three opportunities to be heard at public hearings scheduled by the county Board of Legislators. The first one is today in the legislative chambers following the 2 p.m. meeting of the Board of Legislators.

Others are scheduled Nov. 2 in Rome and Nov. 6, in Utica. The board will vote on the budget at its Nov. 8 meeting.

The proposed $407.8 million spending plan increases spending about $14 million over the 2017 plan, but carries no property tax rate increase. That's due to several factors, not the least of which is the county's gaming revenue agreement with the state and the Oneida Indian Nation.

Oneida County has received over $60 million in revenue since 2014. Were it not for the agreement, Picente said the county would have had to raise property taxes at least 5 percent a year over the past three years.

Also contributing to the revenue stream is that sales tax collection this year is expected to come in above what was budgeted. And for 2018, Picente anticipates a $3.4 million increase in expected sales tax collection.

"We’ve come to a pivotal moment in this region’s history," Picente said during his budget address last week. "With the decline of the ’90s long over and the stagnation of the early 2000s coming to an end, we are at long last seeing real growth."

That's good. But at the same time, the county executive needs to heed his own warning; a warning he issued one year ago during his 2017 budget address: The trend of not increasing the tax levy cannot continue.

"There is not an economics professor in the world who would tell you another zero is a good idea," Picente said, referring to years without hiking the tax levy. "We cannot continue to operate a nearly $400 million government organization responsible for public safety, public health and dozens of other critical services for 235,000 people without increasing revenues."

That has now topped the $400 million mark, and revenues have increased. Picente said the collected sales tax is coming in higher for a number of reasons, including the increase in gas prices. And consumer confidence in Oneida County is up, as well as home sales.

The growth is encouraging, but the caution flag must still be at the ready because things can turn. Nobody wants their taxes to go up, but better to see modest increases year over year than a sudden jump that hits taxpayers over the head.

That's what happened in Utica. Former Utica Mayor Edward A. Hanna and his predecessor, Louis LaPolla, had an eight-year string of no tax increases - a record that came to a screeching halt in 2001 when Tim Julian took over. That year, the city budget came with a 3 percent tax increase, followed a year later by a 7.4 percent hike.

One bright spot is that the 2018 county budget includes more funding for flood mitigation. Picente has proposed spending $12 million over the next six years for projects that could help the county stop future flooding issues. This is critical because not making improvements now will only cost the county - and taxpayers - more in the long run. And as Legislator James D’Onofrio, R-15, rightly noted, communities affected by flooding this past July will continue to be affected until the problem is fixed. And there's no argument that those people need relief.

One area where we still believe the board to be remiss is its refusal to lower the county sales tax. Oneida County shares the dubious distinction with Erie County of having the highest local sales tax in the state at 4.75 percent. When added with the state 4 percent tax, that’s 8.75 percent consumers pay in sales tax - no doubt part of the reason 2017 sales tax revenue is higher than anticipated.

That hike was supposed to be temporary. In 2005, then-County Executive Joseph Griffo initiated a 1.5 percentage point sales-tax increase, which he said was needed to fund rising Medicaid costs. That boosted the county sales tax to 9.75 percent. A cut in the state portion of the sales tax brought the total tax to 9.5 percent. At the time, the county planned to gradually roll back the tax hike to 8 percent, but that never happened. County leaders eventually settled in at 8.75 percent, where it remains today.

We have long argued for that tax to be pared back as originally promised and still believe that should happen. But lawmakers remain steadfast in their determination to keep it where it is. Instead, Picente last year proposed looking at new ways to distribute sales tax revenue, but that idea didn't sit well with municipalities, especially among some village leaders who said such a plan would put them out of business. The county executive scrapped the idea, but said consolidation will have to happen at some point because duplication of services will eventually drain the public pocket. He's right.

And while the county's share of the Oneida Nation gaming agreement is a good revenue stream, it must be remembered that as casino competition increases around the state, so does the potential for the county getting less money from that deal. Under the agreement, the Nation gives the state 25 percent of revenue generated by slot machines per quarter. In turn, 25 percent of the state’s share is given to Oneida County. In June, it was reported that there was a dip in revenue from Turning Stone in the wake of three new upstate casinos opening.